My right to run

My work gave me time off today to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day or maybe it's called Civil Rights day. This was the perfect way to start my 3rd week of training. I had planned to do basic core training the first two weeks and I didn't really have a plan for what would follow. I had seen a map showing how the Jordan Parkway connected to the Legacy Parkway and I was curious to test it out. So I set a goal to reach the Legacy Parkway trailhead.

I usually start my run near 5 am but with it being the holiday, I didn't start until around 6:40 am. My radio was fully charged and I was ready for whatever it took. It turns out that the Jordan Parkway is paved until the end of the Rose Park Golf Course. After that, it was intermittent frozen snow, frozen mud, frozen grass, and gravel. The trail is nice until about 4 miles in when it runs right next to Redwood Road. It was at this point where I could see the traffic light at the intersection of Redwood and I-215 that I began to think I had gone far enough and long enough. I had to remind myself that it was a holiday and I had all day to get there.

After much running and a lot walking I made it to the Legacy Parkway trailhead. It's almost 5 miles from my house and it took me 50 minutes to get there. On my way back I passed another runner. This was the first person I've passed while running these past weeks. You'd think with Salt Lake City recently being voted as the most healthy city in the nation you'd see more people. Or maybe no one is as crazy as me to be running at 5 am in January.

Thanks to my not so handy GPS unit, my total run distance ended up at 9.5 miles and 1 hour and 50 minutes. That calculates to over 11 minutes per mile. That's something I hope to bring down as my training goes on. My GPS unit also said my max speed was 30 mph so I think it may be swinging around in my pocket a bit much. A belt with a holster might be nice. Really I'd like to get a Garmin forerunner 305 which I'd wear like a watch. It measures heart rate too which is something I haven't kept real good track of.

I'm curious to see if I get sore today after such a long run. I guess you could call it a 15K run. I took an Aleve in hopes that I can still get some things done today like put up my peg board in the garage. I'm also working on organizing the Priesthood Preview this coming Sunday.